Madonna’s intro and first thoughts

Hello everyone, Madonna here, I just wanted to give everyone a quick introduction, share a few thoughts, and ask an Agents of Shield question I have.

Firstly I want to thank Ken for getting me involved in the podcast of the damned. I really enjoyed talking comics and all things nerd/geek with him. I haven’t had the privilege of meeting Michael or James yet, but next time I trek back to Philly I’m going to try to get together with everyone and maybe even record an episode with them. I’ve been reading comics since the mid 90s. My father got me into them, he let me read his classic x-men collection, and I never looked back. I’m currently reading mostly Marvel, Image, and IDW comics. I used to read more DC, but I’m getting further away from them.

I want to talk about 2 comics real quickly. The Autumnlands: Tooth and Claw is one of the best comics I’ve read in years. If you haven’t seen it or know anything about it I’ll give a quick overview. It’s a fantasy series staring anthropomorphic animals, who live in a world with magic. Magic starts failing and a conclave of wizards get together to bring the Champion, the one who brought magic into the world, back from the past to try to strengthen magic in the current time. This series has excellent writing and world building. Issue 5 just came out this week, it’s a great read and you should pick it up.

The other comic I want to talk about is the most recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series from IDW. SPOILER ALERT: Donatello “dies” at the end. I wont believe he’s dead until I see a funeral, dead body (they show him but its not confirmed he’s dead), and it goes for 2 or more years without him coming back. Most likely they’ll put his brain into Metalhead’s body. I just wanted to congratulate and praise IDW for not revealing this months ahead of the time. Anymore previews just ruins big reveals to sell comics and not pumping this “death” to sell comics really speaks highly of IDW and the trust they have in their writers. They know they have a good story and they let that speak for itself.

While listening to this week’s podcast the guys talked about Agents of Shield. They made some great points and I had a few thoughts and questions I wanted to get out there. First of all I see that SHIELD (Phil Coulson’s team) and The Real Shield (TRS, Edward James Olmos’s team) as the set up for the end of Avengers 2 and the start of Captain America: Civil War. SHIELD is going to be the Anti-registration, and TRS is going to obviously be Pro-registration. Like the guys were talking about TRS is set up. They had a base, red shirts, money, and a feeling of legitimacy. If you show the average person both teams TRS looks like what you’d expect a covert team to look like. SHIELD is underground. Coulson’s team is scrambling, they only have a few agents and support staff, plus as the guys said, 2 of their main field agents are TRS spies. Looking at the fighting between Fitz and Simmons, this is just the beginning of the infighting that’s about to start. Simmons is going to leave SHIELD. She’s clearly freaked out by powers, doing everything she can to prevent Skye (can we call her Quake yet?) from manifesting her ability. I loved Fitz finally calling Simmons out. Simmons has been a pain in the ass since season 2 started and I’m looking forward to seeing Fitz grow once Simmons goes to TRS.

One of the biggest questions I have is, is the blind teleporter actually Reader from the comics and if so does he work for the Capo? Is Agents of Shield setting up 2 inhuman groups? Agents of Shield has had a symmetry to it since it started, do we think that they are setting up Reader and the Capo to be going around, gathering Inhumans, building their army, while Black Bolt and Medusa are quietly sitting in the background with the Royals waiting for a big reveal?

Thank you for reading my randomness. If you haven’t yet, check out last weeks podcast, the guys did a great job. I’ll be writing more for the site, I’m going to start a few days a week and build up from there.

One thought on “Madonna’s intro and first thoughts”

That’s a great question/conjecture on the future of the Inhumans on AoS and in the movies…I’d like them to set up a persecuted outlaw dynamic, ala Capo’s Hellfire Club to the Inhuman’s X-Men. Such grey areas in motivation, imho, are best served up over seasons of television vice a two-hour movie where the need to set conflicts along clear lines might be more urgent. If Skye is to flee SHIELD into the waiting arms of such an organization, the writers might be setting up Simmons and the new “real” SHIELD as a catalyst for just that. Oh, and welcome to the Damned…hope you brought plenty of ice water!